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Music Is Math Lyrics

The past inside the present

Be careful
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Submitted by
bengt12 On Nov 06, 2004
9 Meanings

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Cover art for Music Is Math lyrics by Boards of Canada

Standard disclaimer: The lads from BoC prefer for listeners to project their own impressions into their music. Of course, curiosity and a desire to see more in their great soundscapes compels many of us to dig a little.

Resources on the 'net attribute "past inside the present" to the socialist playwright Bertolt Brecht. Without researching any further, I pondered if the sound clip could be Brecht himself. (anyone?)

Regardless, learning more about Brecht was inspiring for me, and strengthened my already great love of this track.

It's hard to do traditional interpretation on such a track, but the authors would probably hate that, anyway. :) IMPRESSIONS, yes!

I guessed that there was alot of thought behind this and other tracks on Geogaddi. There's a somber feeling to this one for me. Lots of peril and a little hope, too, maybe. The title set off a firestorm of questions, since such is the nature of the human brain. The music, on first impression, appealed to me right away. The rhythm compelled me first, with that great, insistent thumping, which is constant. The audio bite intrigued me, and led me to the research that educated me on Brecht. It's kind of like an un-naturally heavy rainstorm, with a weird kind of non-stop thunder. You'd be frightened of it, but you're too intrigued or even awed with the surreality of the event. Love it. -Phase

Cover art for Music Is Math lyrics by Boards of Canada

Music, like math, is a universal language, which we use to make sense of things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to understand. "The past inside the present" could be referring to how, even though times change, music and math remain constant. That's how I see it, anyway.

But, "Constants are Changing"..

Cover art for Music Is Math lyrics by Boards of Canada

the 'be careful' can be heard in the background around 3:50

Cover art for Music Is Math lyrics by Boards of Canada

love it.

Cover art for Music Is Math lyrics by Boards of Canada

i had thought "be careful" was "purple" instead. whichever it really is, it is said twice consecutively

Cover art for Music Is Math lyrics by Boards of Canada

Math is describing states, states have their past inherent (like the billion years long past of a stone formed his present appearance) therefore math also describes their past, or could. Considering that BoC is putting very special emotions into their tracks, and Geogaddi alone is an overwhelming experience of an emotional journey (for some, at least for me) btw, the 'past inside the present' could be a description of the music... or everything.

The thing at the end sounds like purple to me, too. uhm, but purple...i heard somewhere it stands for spirituality. maybe it is 'be careful', that would make more sense.

Cover art for Music Is Math lyrics by Boards of Canada

The past inside the present thus the present inside the future, like listening to an old song now

Cover art for Music Is Math lyrics by Boards of Canada

I plugged my iPod in downstairs in my living room and sat there by myself in the dark listening to this song (while eating Nesquick) and it was bliss. This in the dark is so cool.

I'm sure that Nesquick fits this song very well

Oh shut up.

Cover art for Music Is Math lyrics by Boards of Canada

today, just now, I was listening to a joy division song on youtube (ceremony) and the video was made up of all these pictures of ian and the guys and i was overcome by all these feelings, thinking, wow, he's just dead.. he's gone.. and there was this picture of him and morris, and they're just smiling with a guitar on their laps. i thought, well, you know, he IS dead but RIGHT NOW, in the past, he is sitting there with his guitar and he's smiling. it's happening right now, but in the past! i've never thought about the parallel time theory before. i was just researching, reading people's stories and then I remembered this song! "the past inside the present" .. what a nice way to put it.

My Interpretation
 
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